Gary's day

With the current hot weather today's match at Home Farm was going to be a bit different with a mid match weigh in. Out of the bag came peg 5 for me. One away from the top corner where I had been last time.

There were lots of fish cruising around as we set up so I did a long line shallow rig for some mugging, 1 for the deck out long on pellets and then a rig for the edge on paste. There might have been lots of fish cruising but they were not that interested in feeding and 45 mins later I was getting tired but not many fish with 3 small carp for all the effort. Around me everyone else was struggling but Kevin on peg 6 seemed to be getting a few by being patient out long so a change was needed.

That seemed to work. It was steady rather than hectic but the bites and fish kept coming and by the midway point I had 48lbs with Kevin having about 18lbs.

I had been trickling some feed down the edges from early on and the mud plumes showed a few fish were coming into the margins. There were plenty of indications but not many bites and I wasted far too long for 1 carp. Whilst I was wasting my time Kevin seemed to have it cracked fishing long and shallow on the pole and my lead was getting pulled back.

Rob on peg 3 had also gone rather quiet and a stream of splashes sounded like he was also doing well. He had managed to get the margins working whilst the rest of us were struggling.

It was time to go back to Plan A. The carp were smaller than down the edge but at least I could catch them fishing a 6mm pellet on the bottom. It was then a pretty busy last couple of hours but had I changed back quick enough?

It was definitely a match of 2 halves today with myself, Kevin and Rob all getting a few bites in the end but the others really struggled. At the final weigh in I had 105lbs, Kevin had a really strong second half for 86lbs and Rob's margins got him out of jail with 72lbs. Picture today is Kevin.